


stay as long as you need

by thesaroscycle



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 13:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19210480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesaroscycle/pseuds/thesaroscycle
Summary: This is for the pissboy exchange!!! To Ares ❤❤❤ aaaa i hope you like this!!!!!!!!!A small note: this is a v soft au so everyones probably a bit ooc but like. . . Thats how it be i guessThe title is from two by sleeping at last and its a BOPEnjoy!!!!!!





	stay as long as you need

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the pissboy exchange!!! To Ares ❤❤❤ aaaa i hope you like this!!!!!!!!! 
> 
> A small note: this is a v soft au so everyones probably a bit ooc but like. . . Thats how it be i guess 
> 
> The title is from two by sleeping at last and its a BOP
> 
> Enjoy!!!!!!

Andrew started every morning at the bakery the same. He made bread starter, collected the ingredients he needed, threw out or ate what was too old to sell, and headed across the street to the little coffee shop to deliver whatever he still had in stock.   
In the odd light right before sunrise, and with everything closed but the bakery behind him and the café in front of him, the road looked just a step out of reality, low orange light spilling from the windows and out onto the sidewalks. Their intersection, with the bookshop across from Andrew’s bakery and the flower shop adjacent, was a popular stop for a lot of people in their little town, and was lucky enough to be crossed by the two main streets of town. The mall down a block and the touristy shops north a bit, they were at the perfect crux of not too many strangers and not too many people they would know. At least, that was how Andrew preferred it; he had too many people to avoid in such a small population, but he managed just fine where he was.   
Like every morning, Andrew swore as he nearly tripped over the half-inch of uneven sidewalk, and just like every morning he swore that one of these days he was going to fix it himself, since no one else seemed able to. Andrew stood in front of the glass door for a moment, steeling himself like he did every morning; the last streetlight flickered out above him, and Andrew watched the sun rise just over the hills in the east. He took a deep breath before opening the door into the café.   
As always, Neil was in the front, messing with the same finicky coffee maker he was every day. It always seemed broken in some way, old and guttering and giving out completely every few weeks, but Neil insisted it made the best coffee; the burnt grinds and brown water rather than coffee it gave every once in a while was part of its charm. Andrew would admit that it was good was good as long as the machine decided to work that day.   
Today, Neil was struggling to get the lid that held the water open enough to pour some inside. He was wearing a horrid orange apron, sporting the café’s icon on the top, as well as a matching orange headband Neil had gotten as a gift. That, plus his ratty black skinny jeans and neon red sweater, made him the brightest thing in the room, even with all the orange furniture.  
He and Neil had started dating recently, just out of the college an hour away from town and already working at their preferred side of the intersection, seeing each other from the other side of the street and, some mornings, on the ride to school. They’d had a few classes together, and had studied together on whatever days they were free, sometimes joined by his and Neil’s friends, and staying at each other’s flats for all-nighters during exam week.  
The day they graduated, Andrew, boosted in confidence from finally being done with his experience in higher education and a good pep-talk from his foster mother, asked Neil if he wanted to meet outside of studying, on their own.   
Neil at the time had raised his eyebrows. “You mean like a date?”   
Andrew, ignoring the burning in his face and shoving his hands into his pockets, suddenly not as confidant as he had been, had mumbled yes, like a date.   
It took a moment for Neil to answer—a moment in which Andrew was very much deciding what name he should go by in whatever country he moved to, because there was no coming back from a mistake like this—but when he did, his yes with a smile lit up his whole face.   
They’d gone to the only diner in town, dressed way too nice for a place as shitty as Sweetie’s. Neil had brought flowers from the store across the street; Andrew brought him a headband.   
They’d gone on a few more dates after that, taking it slow as per Neil’s request, but had started visiting each other at work only a few weeks prior. Andrew always went with the excuse that he had extras the café could sell, while Neil always walked over with lunch for both of them.   
Andrew decided he didn’t mind if they moved any farther forward in their relationship; he was pretty fucking happy where they were now, and that was more than enough for him.   
Neil glanced over at him and smiled before going back to prying the lid off the machine with a screwdriver. Andrew set down the bag of pastries and bread on the counter before reaching over it to unlatch the hook that kept the cover closed. The lid flew up so fast it bounced back and closed itself again, and startled Neil so bad he nearly elbowed the pitcher of water next to him off the counter.   
Andrew began unpacking his delivery without looking up as Neil laughed incredulously. “I’m starting to think you’re right about buying a new machine,” He says with a wry smile as he pours the water in the machine and turns it on to warm it up, putting away the pastry as he waits. “As good as the coffee, I don’t know if it’s worth the trouble.”   
“Don’t let Dan hear you say that,” Andrew grins slightly as he finishes unpacking and lightly taps the counter. “That’s basically Foxhole blasphemy.”   
“Damn right it is,” comes a voice from the back room, making both of them pause before laughing.

\---

Andrew spent the rest of the day as he normally did, with a few Neil shaped visits when he could get away from Dan. By then, all the regulars at their shop knew that something was happening between them, if only because they spent all their breaks at one another’s store. The regulars that became particular trouble, however, were the ones Andrew knew personally.   
Andrew’s immediate family, namely his twin brother and cousin, frequented the stores at the intersection because they were the closest to where they both live—Nicky’s house and Andrew and Aaron’s apartment complex being a block in either direction—but also because they seemed to feed off Andrew’s suffering. They both knew his hours, so they came in whenever they knew he was working the till to bother him and talk to him about family dinners and other things he didn’t want to talk about.   
Still, Andrew had been lucky up until then that they’d come in separately; even Aaron with his girlfriend were manageable on a good day. When Renee called him to the front on his break with Neil, the dread in his stomach told him his time had run out.   
“Is this an intervention,” Andrew joked dryly as he saw four of his family waiting at the counter, looking determined (Nicky and Aaron) and slightly apologetic (Erik and Katelyn).   
“Not unless it needs to be,” Nicky said, wearing his ‘I’m technically your guardian so you have to listen to me’ face.   
“You’re going to get me fired for improper conduct,” Andrew said, just as flat as before, and hears Renee hide a snort behind her hand. They both know Wymack would never do anything like that.   
“You’re coming to family dinner this Friday whether you like it or not,” Nicky says, still staying as serious as he can.   
“Unless you’re actually busy and have a social life outside of your family on Fridays,” Katelyn says, still smiling in the way that says ‘I’m sorry your family is like this, but to be fair you’re the same way’.   
“Actually,” Neil says from behind him; for a man three inches taller than Andrew, he knows how to hide behind him pretty well. “I might be at fault here.”   
The way Aaron and Nicky reacted to that was almost comical. Erik looked happy for him, and Katelyn looked like she already knew, which—made sense, really, since she’s friends with Dan, Renee and their significant others.   
Neil explained that they’ve been going out every Friday since that’s when their schedules line up—mostly true, but Andrew also set up the dates specifically so he had an excuse to not go to family dinners, and would’ve had to tell them about Neil. He continued to talk about what they’ve been doing, after being prompted (tearfully) by Nicky, until Dan called him back on his phone at the end of his lunch break.   
Renee mentioned that it was time for Andrew to get back to work too, so his family took their leave—Nicky with an aborted hug that ended up as a pat on the back, and a look from Aaron that said ‘we’re absolutely talking about your secret boyfriend later’. Andrew flipped him off in return, wondering if psychic connections between twins were still a thing if they’d been separated as children.   
Andrew continued the day as planned, other than sneaky amused glances from Renee and a few texts from Neil apologizing for telling his family ‘about them’ without having asked Andrew about it first. Andrew didn’t care, and told him so; he just hoped he was ready to deal with the most awful, caring group of people he’d ever meet, and for an eternity of family dinner Friday’s with Nicky’s experimental Mexican food.   
For a relationship only a few months old, and a pair of people still recovering from a lot of fucked up shit in their past, it was a lot, but Andrew thought Bee would be pretty proud of him for it when he tells her about it on their own little family dinner.

\---

After work, he and Neil walked home together. Their shops closed at around the same times, and they each brought things to drink for each other on the walk home. Neil brought him the hot chocolate Dan kept in the back and on a high shelf so only Matt could grab it for her, not thinking about Neil and his ability to climb up onto counters and, if needed, grab a stepping stool. Andrew in return handed him the weird spicy tea that Renee’s mom liked to drink, and kept in full boxes in the back of the bakery for the days where she needed a pick-me-up. Andrew figured she wouldn’t need them now that she was traveling, and the familiar excited face Neil had made when he saw the boxes made it hard for Andrew to say no.   
They usually weren’t in much of a talking mood, enjoying the quiet right before the sun set fully and each other’s company, and that night was no different. Andrew decided about halfway through that he was tired of the little jolt his heart gave every time the back of Neil’s hand brushed against his and asked a gruff yes or no just to get it to stop. That was the excuse he told himself, at least; he made a note to do it all the time after he saw the awed look on Neil’s face when he’d laced their hands together. They’d kissed and cuddled and done whatever the last couple weeks, but it had always been in the privacy of their own apartments. Now, it felt like a big step, even after the whole meeting-the-family thing that had happened not even a few hours earlier.   
At their apartment building, Andrew dragged him to his flat instead of letting Neil go to his own, and made them both a college-chic dinner of boxed mac n’ cheese. They’d done this a hundred times before the past few years, weekends when they wanted to relax and days they’d decided to not do their homework on time like they were supposed to. It felt different now, since they hadn’t done in since graduating, but not bad-different. For once, Andrew felt like he’d found a kind of change he could handle, and maybe enjoy.   
It was a plus that now, when they played Mario Kart, they could sit in each other’s laps like Andrew had wanted them to since his sophomore year. It was a definite plus that now, when Neil lost horrifically at Mario Kart like he always did, Andrew could kiss that stupid pout off his lips like he’d wanted to.   
Andrew decided change wasn’t so bad at all. 


End file.
